The invention relates to a method for repeater management in a telecommunication network utilizing wireless data transmission, said network comprising base stations for wireless transmission of data, repeaters for repeating the signals of the base stations to shadow regions, and a network management centre for changing the configuration of the base stations to correspond to a base station plan received by the network management centre.
The invention further relates to a network management system for a radio network, which comprises base stations for sending radio signals and repeaters for repeating base station signals to shadow regions, said network management system comprising a database for storing base station data and means for receiving a base station plan and for sending the information included therein to the base stations for changing their configuration.
The invention also relates to a repeater, which is part of a wireless data transmission network comprising a network management centre.
Repeaters are used in data transmission networks utilizing wireless data transmission for covering base station shadow regions, e.g. in difficult terrain and in tunnels. A repeater is a transparent element on a radio path and its function is to amplify and repeat radio signals. Some of the repeater parameters are dependent on the parameters of that base station the shadow region of which the repeater covers and thus, when the configuration of the base station changes, these parameters need to be updated in all repeaters repeating its signals to make them correspond to the new parameters of the base station. This is particularly important in the case of channel selective repeaters, which only repeat certain frequencies. They have to be adjusted to repeat the same frequencies as the base station corresponding to them, because otherwise they will not function.
The person maintaining the network will have to configure the base stations, i.e. to change for instance the base station frequencies when extending or tuning the network and when increasing its capacity. The base stations are automatically updated to be in accordance with a new configuration by transferring a new base station plan to the network management, whereby the network management automatically loads the base station plan to the network by sending update messages to the base stations for their reconfiguration. In prior art solutions repeater parameters are reconfigured to correspond to the new base station plan by manually checking repeater by repeater, from the output list to be obtained from the network management, the new values, e.g. frequencies, of the base station corresponding to the repeater concerned. A problem with this method is that it is slow, susceptible to errors and laborious. In addition, the reliability of the network is poor because repeater updating is slow and susceptible to errors. Another problem with the known solutions is that if the repeaters malfunction, an alarm is not supplied to network management automatically. Also this reduces the reliability of the network. A further problem with the known solutions is that at present the user has to search for information with several different systems in order to find out the parameter values of the base station and the repeaters repeating its signals and what these values should be.
An object of the invention is to integrate repeater management with network management in order to solve the above mentioned problems. This object is achieved with a method of the invention, which is characterized by adding to a network management centre a database including the data on the network repeaters, which include for each repeater at least the identifier of the base station corresponding to the repeater concerned; making a repeater plan for changing repeater parameters to correspond to the changed configuration of the base stations; and sending each repeater an update message containing parameters for the reconfiguring of said repeater to correspond to the repeater plan.
The invention further relates to a network management system, to which the method of the invention can be applied. The network management system of the invention is characterized in that the network management system comprises means for storing data on the repeaters in said database, which data contain for each repeater at least the identifier of the base station corresponding to the repeater concerned, means for utilizing the data on the repeaters stored in the database for producing a repeater plan in response to the received base station plan, and means for sending each repeater an update message corresponding to the repeater plan in response to the completion of the repeater plan.
The invention also relates to a repeater which can be utilized in the method and the network management system of the invention. The repeater of the invention is characterized in that the repeater comprises means for receiving update messages from the network management centre and means for changing its parameters in response to a message.
The invention is based on the idea of storing data on the repeaters in the database of the network management system, said data comprising, for each repeater, the identifier of the base station corresponding to the repeater concerned, a repeater identifier, a contact number and parameter values. These data are utilized e.g. when a new base station plan transferred to the network management system for further transmission to the base stations is used for changing the parameter values of the repeaters in the network management system to correspond to the base station plan, and for sending the repeater plan thus obtained to the repeaters in connection with the sending of the base station plan. This allows reconfiguring the repeaters substantially simultaneously with their respective base stations whereby e.g. the frequencies at the base stations and in the repeaters repeating their signals are the same. The most significant advantages of the invention are therefore increased network reliability and easier and faster updating of the repeaters because the slow and laborious work phase susceptible to errors is left out.
In addition, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, the repeaters acknowledge the changes they have made by returning their parameter values to the network management system. This provides the advantage that comparing the received acknowledgements with the planned values enables finding any repeaters the configuration of which for some reason was not successful, allowing the situation to be rapidly defined and corrected. Also, since the user can ask for parameter data from the repeater via the network management and use the data stored in the network management on base stations and repeaters, a further advantage provided by the invention is that the user obtains all data related to the network with one system.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention only the changed parameters are sent to the repeaters. This provides the advantage that the messages to be sent are short and the adjusting of the repeaters concerns only the changed values.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the parameter values to be stored for the repeaters are collected from repeater-specific parameters of a fixed value and from the parameters of the base station plan. This provides the advantage of obtaining tailored parameters for the repeaters, which parameters take into account the location, i.e. the conditions of operation and the type of the repeaters, even if a rough level repeater planning programme is used.
Preferred embodiments according to the method and system of the invention are described in the attached dependent claims 2, 3 and 5-8.